


Apart

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life [14]
Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 10:32:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8621074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: She stood watching down the hall as he first waited for the elevator, then entered and turned back to look at her as the door closed. Neither smiled, Scully choosing to mouth ‘bye’ while Mulder simply tilted his head to one side, unblinking as he whispered something back.





	

“Scully, I need to go.”

She’d sailed into dreamland so quickly that now, she couldn’t tell which way was up, “what?”

“I need to go. That was my aunt calling about my mom. She’s in the hospital and I have to drive to upstate New York.”

“What time is it?” Sitting up slowly, she looked around, “how long was I asleep?”

“About 10 minutes at most.”

“What?”

He hated to rush her but he needed to leave, “I’m gonna get dressed and go. Will you be able to get back to your apartment okay? Or you can stay here. It’s fine with me.”

Swinging her feet off the bed, “do you want me to come with you? It’s a long drive.”

Mulder had already dropped his pajama pants and was yanking up jeans, trying simultaneously to pull off his dirty thermal. Nearly tumbling to the ground, Scully grabbed him by the waist, steadying him, his muffled thanks drifting through a layer of cotton. Once he’d gotten his shirt down and his pants up, he slowed down for a moment, “I’ll be okay.”

“What happened?”

“She was visiting her sister and wasn’t feeling well and woke up my aunt to call 911. They were on the way to the hospital when she had a heart attack and that’s all I know right now.” Spinning in a circle, looking for his shoes, “do you know where my boots are?”

She stopped his movements, “why don’t you go find them and get your things from the bathroom. I’ll pack up some clothes for you and some things to snack on.”

Obeying, he disappeared while Scully shook her head to wake up as she crossed the room to his dresser. It took all of two minutes for her to stuff things into his now emptied carryon suitcase, the previous dirty items strewn across the bed. Meeting him in the living room, she gathered up the toiletries on the coffee table while he tied his shoes. Stuffing those in his luggage, she moved to the kitchen, tossing a handful of granola bars, several bottles of ice tea and two apples in a grocery bag.

Scully ran into him when she turned from the counter. Handing him the bag, “take a nap, please, when you start to get tired. Don’t fight it.”

Turning, he headed towards the front door, grabbing his suitcase as he went by, “I will.”

He reached the door before her but didn’t open it even as she caught up to him. Instead, he stared down at her as she made her final plea, “are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I can take the bag I have with me and I can share the drive.”

Leaning forward, he dropped his bags, then slipped his hands along her jawline, settling his palms near her ears, his thumbs lightly rubbing the edges of her temples, “I will be fine. You need to stay here and make sure the case gets wrapped up. Skinner’s going to need your notes and you’ll have to walk him through all the science, you can’t do it over the phone. Besides, Mom might be fine by the time I get there. It might have been a small one and I’ll be home in a day or two.”

She understood but still had to bite her tongue to stop her arguing as she nodded against his touch, “call me when you know anything, okay?”

“I will.” He then went in for a kiss to her forehead but detoured, instead landing his lips against hers quickly, brushing them over before pulling back again, returning to his original destination, leaving a kiss there as well, “I will call you when I stop.”

With her hand on his side, she missed his warmth immediately but nudged him out the door, knowing he only hesitated because of her, “talk to you soon. I hope your mom’s okay.”

He missed her already as well, “me, too.”

She stood watching down the hall as he first waited for the elevator, then entered and turned back to look at her as the door closed. Neither smiled, Scully choosing to mouth ‘bye’ while Mulder simply tilted his head to one side, unblinking as he whispered something back.

Finally, she moved back inside, shutting the door behind her. Surveying the room, she realized she wasn’t tired anymore, opting to feed the fish, call a cab and head on home, figuring she’d spend most of the day cleaning.

&&&&&&&&&

She’d been cleaning for several hours when her phone trilled from its spot on the edge of the bathtub, “It’s me.”

Stopping her toilet scrubbing, she sat back on her heels, “how’s your mom?”

“Not awake yet. Sorry I didn’t call earlier but I figured you were sleeping and I drove straight through, fueled by caffeine and junk food. Thanks for the snacks, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.” Now sitting back, wall cold against her sweaty t-shirt, “did you get a hotel or are you staying with your aunt?”

“Hotel. She’s got too many knickknacks and dried flowers and every room has Victorian wallpaper. I can’t handle that; it’d be like sleeping in a funeral parlor.”

Smiling, “what else did the doctors say?”

The conversation ran another 20 minutes while Mulder read her his mother’s entire chart, including drug names, which he butchered spectacularly, making her chuckle more than once. She even got to hear the conversation between the nurse who tried to snatch the chart from him and the authority with which he spoke of his ‘brilliant doctor friend back home who could either be read the chart now or would be calling to demand faxing of it and an hourly update from now until the crisis passed’. She left him to his recitation.

Once he was finished, “so, what do you think, Doc?”

“I think they’re doing everything right. Sometimes you just have to wait.”

“I hate waiting.”

“I know you do but it’s how the world works. Sometimes, Fox Mulder has to have patience.”

“Stupid world.” Pausing for a moment, “you still at my place?”

“No. I left a few minutes after you did. I was awake and figured I might as well come home and see what needed to be cleaned. It appears my whole place does but just because it’s a mess and not because of the smoke. It smelled fine in here so now I’m just scrubbing the bathroom, which, actually, I need to stop doing to go get ready for mom’s.”

On his end, Mulder frowned, “I’m sorry I’m going to miss dinner. Tell Maggie I’ll make it next time, I swear.”

Scully drew in a breath, letting out a deep sigh, “your mother’s in the hospital. If mom gets pissed at you for not being at dinner, I’m going to have some very loud and very inappropriate words with her in the middle of the main course.” Knowing she’d never, he still enjoyed the image of the two Scully women swearing at each other over a steaming roast while the rest of the family continued their own conversations. Both seemed to be seven feet tall and waving rolling pins as well. Telling her his mental pictures, she laughed, “you really need some sleep. Go get a nap if you can and I’ll call you tonight when I get home, all right?”

Glancing at the uncomfortable chair in the corner of the hospital room, “I’ll do my best.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Scully.”

He never said ‘bye’ and it threw her off for a moment, but then she answered quietly, “bye.”

&&&&&&&&&&&

Maggie was appropriately worried about both Mulder and his mother, but at the current moment, she was more concerned for her daughter, who spent most of the pre-meal visit and the first two courses staring off into space, her reverie only broken when someone had to nudge her a second or third time, saying her name loudly to get her attention. Things carried on this way until suddenly, while Maggie was cutting the last of the roast up for passing, the table got quiet, Dave getting her attention with a tap to her arm, “I think Dana’s had a long day.”

Looking up, she found her daughter, head propped precariously on her palm, fast asleep. As the table stared, Scully, still out like a light, moved her hand, bent her elbow and lowered her head to rest on her forearm, hand now resting on her own shoulder. Hannah looked down at her plate, then whispered to her dad across the table, “Aunt Dana’s hair is in my potatoes.”

“Do you mind?”

“No.”

Giving his daughter a grin, Dave then whispered back, “just move it, it’ll be fine.”

Doing so, the table finished their meal in relative silence, leaving their sleeping member in peace. It wasn’t until they were just finishing dessert that Hannah dropped her cup, sending the plastic clattering across the floor and sending Scully bolting up in her chair, sliding it back and scrambling for the gun she wasn’t carrying in her waistband. The moment of panic passed and she saw her family staring at her, half amused, half concerned by her reaction.

Scully noticed the cup, then, blinking several times, “was I asleep?”

Tara nodded, “yes, but Hannah kept you from suffocating in your carrots.”

Accepting the surreal moment as if it were routine, she turned to the little girl, “thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

&&&&&&&&&

Making it home earlier than later, having opted to duck out before the rest of the family, she yawned the entire drive and nearly fell asleep in her parking spot. The only thing that kept her awake was Mulder’s phone call, “how was dinner?”

Scully walked up the front path, “I wouldn’t know. I fell asleep in the middle of it and didn’t wake up until the end of dessert.”

“On the couch?”

“No. Literally. I fell asleep right next to my plate and Hannah had to eat around my hair, which landed in her mashed potatoes but I thanked her once I woke up because she is apparently the sole reason I did not suffocate in my carrots. Remind me to buy her an extra Christmas gift.”

“Did Dave take a picture for me?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it. Ask him about it when you see him.”

“Hell, I’m going to call him the minute I hear you fall asleep, which from the sound of your voice is only 20 or 30 seconds from now at most.”

Now in her living room and headed straight for her bed, “if you hear a thud, that’s me crashing in the hallway.”

He was already in bed on his end, having left the hospital in favor of a decent night’s sleep, “I’ll keep you talking until then.”

“Damn it.”

“What? In the wrong apartment?”

Scully stomped her foot once on the carpet, “I forgot I stripped my bed and didn’t put sheets on … oh, fuck it, who needs sheets anyway.”

“Such language, Agent Scully.”

Stripped to her underwear and tanktop, she wrapped herself in the comforter and crawled on the bed, “such a soft bed, Agent Mulder.”

“G’night, partner.”

Mumbling her goodnight, she barely got her phone plugged in before she passed out.


End file.
